Scandals cost Commonwealth Bank staff $100 million in pay

The Commonwealth Bank claims it has stripped more than $100 million worth of remuneration from its employees over the past two financial years in response to a string of scandals that cost former chief executive Ian Narev his job.

The bank released its annual report alongside its full-year results on Wednesday morning, revealing just how far it has been willing to go to atone for its corporate transgressions.

“Executive pay outcomes for our current and former executives have been directly impacted by the Austrac settlement and the findings of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) Prudential Inquiry Report into CBA,” said former Lend Lease boss and now head of the CBA board's remuneration committee, Sir David Higgins, in the bank's remuneration report.

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“The board has also exercised its discretion to adjust downwards individual executive remuneration outcomes, having regard to other risk and reputation matters,” he said.

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He did not elaborate further on the executives who were penalised over risk and reputation matters.

In the red

Narev’s remuneration was technically in the negative as he forfeited more than $3.3 million worth of long-term incentives, which exceeded the $2.9 million salary and termination payment he received.

His replacement, Matt Comyn, also requested to forfeit his short-term bonus last year, which meant his remuneration totalled just $2.96 million last year.

This was far less than the $5.7 million his predecessor Narev made in the previous year, and significantly lower than the payments to some of the executives who departed the bank last financial year.

Catherine Livingstone and Sir David Higgins. Illustration: John Shakespeare

They include Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who headed the bank's institutional banking operation and left with a $5.15 million remuneration bundle, including a $966,000 termination payment.

The bank's former IT boss, David Whiteing received remuneration totalling $4.7 million including a $914,000 termination payment.

Former wealth boss, Annabel Spring, received just over $4 million, including a $1.37 million termination payment.

According to Higgins, the result of the “operation of the remuneration framework” and the exercise of board discretion over the last two financial years has led to a “reduction in remuneration outcomes exceeding $100 million”.

This includes the board’s move in August last year to reduce its own fees and strip the group executives of their short-term incentive pay for the 2017 financial year.